Bettacreek - New home? Plus a pic of some of the ladies here

[Denim Deb]

Bet that will come in handy!

 

[Bettacreek]

Yeah. It'll be interesting having a set amount of money coming in each month again. I'm going to try to just stockpile it. The boys do need some new summer clothes, and new shoes wouldn't hurt (little boys aren't very gentle on shoes, lol), but after that, I'm hoping to just stock pile. Living on $0 income wasn't too difficult for me (no bills really) and just using my tax returns and whatever soap sales I made wasn't all that bad. I really have to figure out what I'm doing about school though. That definately threw a wrench in my life. I was doing really well, then BAM I'm a hopeless fool again. It really sucked.

 

[Wannabefree]

Glad things are looking up!

 

[hqueen13]

Hurray for more money! Seems there are a number of people coming into more money lately...

 

[Bettacreek]

Yeah, it's not the $40k/year that I'd have been making starting Julyish if I had finished school, but yanno... It'll help until I can figure school out... Either by going to another school to finish my LPN or by taking an RN program. I think for now, I just want to loaf for a little, start working at a mid-grade job until the boys are in school (if I go for the RN route).

 

[Bettacreek]

Insomnia hit again. Boyfriend came down to check on me, so I figured what the hey, I'd ask where he hid the flashlight (we have a lot of hidden things around the house, thanks to curious little boys) and check some of the eggs. I only did a small sampling of candling, just a few from each group. I checked a few more of the pekin eggs though, since they're my most prized eggs in the incubator right now. I found one out of maybe 8 that didn't have veins, everything else that I checked (I checked maybe a dozen other eggs) had veins and little itty bitty embryos in there! I'm so freaking stoked that it's not even funny. I haven't incubated in about two years now, plus with the new incubator, I wasn't 100% sure of myself... Especially with salebarn eggs costing me six bucks. I just might make my way to the auction again this week to load up the rest of the space in the incubator (save for the space I need for silkies/showgirls and button quail eggs coming in the mail). I figure it costs the same to run the incubator whether it's full or not, so I might as well keep as many eggs in there as possible (without overwhelming my hatching tray of course :/). If I can get eggs for under a buck a dozen, and get an 80% hatch rate, I can easily keep on top of things, and pay for the feed for the chicks until the next week's sale, PLUS the feed for whatever birds I intend to keep. If I do really well, I might even be able to pay for a pen or two with the profits. As it is right now, if I get a 80% hatch rate on these eggs, I can make at least $36 on these eggs. That's calculating them if they go at $0.85/ea at the auction, which is the lowest price I've seen chicks ever go for, and that's for mixed breed chicks. I have some EE (should go for a little bit more), some banties (which may go for a good price, depending on what they are), some barred Americanas (will go for more) then the "large brown" egg chicks, which will probably go for right about $0.85, since there's no idea what they are, and they do nothing special except lay big brown eggs. Anyways, that more than covers my gas to and from the auction both to purchase eggs and to sell chicks (especially now that I live an hour closer to the auction than the last time I did this stuff), plus the initial cost of the eggs, INCLUDING my pekin duck eggs that I plan to keep. Two years ago, I was doing the same thing, and I was doing ok... I'd sell some locally, then take the rest to auction. I didn't go very often because I was about an hour and a half away from the auction, plus I was using a Genesis 1588. So, this year, I know I'll do much better. With the larger incubator (holds more than 3x as many eggs) and the closer location, I should turn a decent profit from this, especially now that I'm more focused on what I actually want to raise. Before I was raising many different things and breeds and kept a few just because they were "cute". This time, I've got a straighter mind about it. I don't know how well I'll do with button quail this time though. I don't have the local store to trade them to for bags of feed, so I'm hoping that turning eggs around will cover that for me. Hopefully the buttons do well locally though... There are more people around here, so I have a better possible client list!

ETA: 10 pekin eggs are going strong, one I'm not sure about (was hard to see in there with the eggs still in the incubator and just placing the flashlight against them, this one was at an odd angle, but it appeared to have possible veins) and the one is still clear (nope, no embryo appeared in the ten minutes since I last checked, lol). I'm delighted. I did this quicky candling with the rest, and at least the other two dozen in the front of the tray are all harboring little chicks. Pretty damn good, 100% fertility in $0.25/doz eggs and optimistically thinking, 96% fertility in $2.25/doz pekin duck eggs!

 

[Denim Deb]

Hope you get a good hatch rate!

 

[BarredBuff]

Hoping for a good hatch rate!

 

[Bettacreek]

Thanks guys, me too!!! I saw a male and female sheep on the local classifieds... $50 each. Male is 2, female is 4. Figured it looked like a really good deal, but don't have anything for sheep, or know anything about them. Ah well, such is life, lol. Maybe in a few years I can get sheep and goats, lol.

 

[Bettacreek]

Found a free ad close by with shelving units. I went to grab them for my soaping room, but they were gone. Instead I ended up walking away with 13 books, all on animal rights, lol. I put them on ebay with a $0.99 starting bid. Figure I already spent gas to get there and back, so I might as well try to get a few pennies back, lol. 2-3 books were selling on ebay closer to $50-$80, so hopefully I get a few bids. If not, I'm not too worried, since ebay now gives you 50 listings for free each month.